Well the last attempt at raising her family was a bust for the Eastern Phoebe mom. She was forced to feed the large cowbird that hatched a few days before her own. This cowbird was so large at the time hers hatched that they were only as large as the leg of the cowbird. Consequently, the cowbird got all the food and the baby Phoebes perished from either starvation or suffocation.
The cowbird was raised until it was time to leave the nest and he flew away, leaving the mom Phoebe unfulfilled in her motherly duties. Usually she would come back later in the summer for a second brood, but this time she started almost immediately laying eggs (one a day).
These eggs seem like a different color that the first brood. These appear beige whereas the first ones were white. Don't know why?
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| White eggs and cowbird egg from the fist brood. |
Incubation period is about 15-16 days.. So we should be seeing the little ones around June 25-26.
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| Mom sitting on the eggs |
Keeping our fingers crossed. Cowbirds stay away!
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